Just over one year after the end of the Space Shuttle Program, we have returned cargo resupply launches to the United States of America and earlier today, we successfully reached the International Space Station with the first commercial resupply mission. That mission was carried out by an American company, SpaceX, under contract with NASA - the first of many resupply missions that will reduce government costs and free us up to explore farther into space than ever before.

I want to congratulate SpaceX and the NASA team that worked alongside them to make this happen, and salute the astronauts on board the International Space Station who successfully captured the Dragon capsule. Tomorrow, the hatch door will be opened and the needed supplies and important science experiments will be unloaded.

This marks the start of a new era of exploration for the United States, one in which we will reduce the cost of missions to low-Earth orbit so we can focus our resources on deep space human missions back around the Moon, to an asteroid, and eventually to Mars.

We're committed to ending the outsourcing of work on America's space program and bringing these jobs back to the United States - and our recent success on the commercial space front proves we're on the right track.

Under President Obama's leadership, the nation is embarking on an ambitious space program that is bringing critical launches back to the U.S., in-sourcing American jobs, and keeping the nation on the cutting edge of technology development and innovation, all the while, maintaining America's world leadership and dominance in space exploration.

Congratulations again to the SpaceX and NASA teams for another milestone on this exciting path. Godspeed, Dragon, and here's to many more successful flights.